De Lille added an important nuance: visitor numbers alone will not define success. The minister said that job creation, the growth of small and medium-sized businesses, rural spillover and inclusion will count as well. It is a shift of emphasis that mirrors the global debate on the quality of tourism versus its volume.
From the private sector, the council's chairman, Jerry Mabena, pointed out that rural tourism businesses need better market access, financing suited to their size and dependable basic services such as roads, water and electricity. Without them, he warned, growth will keep concentrating in a handful of places. Najib Balala, executive vice president of the World Travel & Tourism Council, called for better air, rail and road links across the region and for modernised visa policies.
Examples of what already works help explain the ambition. Cape Town, using 2025 data, recorded direct tourism spending of about 24.5 billion rand, of which roughly 19 billion came from international visitors, an increase of around 18 per cent. The activity supported more than 106,000 jobs and about 6.3 per cent of the city's gross value added. On 2 July 2026 LATAM launched direct flights between São Paulo and Cape Town, a link that in 2025 was already moving tens of thousands of travellers on indirect routes. The city has also signed promotional agreements with Stellenbosch, Zimbabwe and Namibia to sell combined itineraries across southern Africa, and it highlights community experiences in townships such as Langa, Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Kayamandi. It aims to raise overnight visitors from about 2.8 million to more than five million, and to push tourism's economic contribution above 30 billion rand. Such figures are best read as context rather than proof, because several of the initiatives cited began earlier in 2026 and their full effects cannot yet be measured.
The Cape Town case illustrates the minister's thesis. When a direct flight and a well-aimed campaign are in place, spending grows. When connections are missing or paperwork discourages travellers, business is lost. In Cape Town, domestic tourist spending also fell from about 8 billion rand to 5.5 billion, which has led the city to stress affordable offers for local travellers. The lesson applies well beyond one city, since every destination in the region faces the same arithmetic of seats, forms and marketing.
The discussion comes as Africa tries to consolidate its tourism weight. The continent has destinations of enormous appeal, from wildlife to cultural heritage, yet it still pays the price of fragmented air transport and uneven entry policies between neighbouring countries. Harmonising those rules and opening the skies are, as public and private voices agree, the quickest levers for attracting visitors and spreading their spending.
The South African government has not yet specified what concrete changes it will make to its visa regime, or on what timetable, so the industry will be watching the next steps closely. Whatever the final design, aligning flights, visas and local business support will be the real test of whether the fifteen million target is reachable, and whether its benefits are felt beyond the best-known tourist spots.
